As part of this week's Alchemy Festival, the Southbank Centre is making a Bollywood film in a week, to be screened for free in the Clore Ballroom at 4:30pm on Sunday 22^nd as the festival finale. The story is a classic boy-meets-girl love story.  No title as yet, but there are a number of cameos, including Raghu Dixit and even Eddie Izzard.

Members of the public were invited to take part in the film by taking part in free Bollywood Dance classes, with dance sequences choreographed by Coronation Street actress Shobna Gupti. Also involved are the Kiran Project, a project set up in 1990 to meet the needs of women from the Indian sub-continent experiencing domestic violence. The project do a lot of work with teenagers, and have twelve young women, aged between 13-15 years, who will be the camera-women for the film. The script is by young author Nikesh Shukla.

The Alchemy Festival has already featured the Asian Dub Foundation, the revered Indian violinist Dr L. Subramaniam and highly rated  sarod player Soumik Datta. Last night saw a brilliantly successful Qawaal- Rajasthani-rock fusion night with Susheela Raman. More details of the Festival here. Still to come:

Sachal Jazz Ensemble

Tuesday 17 April Queen Elizabeth Hall, 8pm

£15 £10

Global YouTube sensation Sachal Jazz Ensemble give their world premiere performance combining the sitar, sarod, tabla and dholak, with a 12-member string section, piano, drums, flugal horn, harmonica and guitar. The Lahore-based, veteran Pakistani ensemble breathes new life into well-known Bossa Nova and Jazz standards including Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, which he said was ‘the most interesting and different recording of Take Five that I’ve heard.’

Their recent innovative jazz album prompted comparisons with Buena Vista Social Club’s rediscovery of a lost generation of Cuban musicians.

Presented by Sama Arts Network and Sachal Music. Supported by Sachal Studios, Lahore.

 Whale Music

Tuesday 17 April, Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm

£10

Whale Music is a long-distance love song with cello and bansuri flute, written and performed by Andrew Motion (Poet Laurette from 1999-2009), exceptional cellist Matthew Sharp and Sameer Rao, one of the top-ranking flautists of his generation. The evening also includes Rag/Bach – an exchange between Sameer Rao and Matthew Sharp sharing what’s in common in their music and what’s not. Whale Music is supported by the British Council, Alchemy Festival and Deal Festival of Music and the Arts.

 Simon Thacker’s Svara-Kanti

Wednesday 18 April Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.45pm

£13 £10

The Indian/Western supergroup led by guitar virtuoso Simon Thacker performs a world premiere. Hear major commissions by one of the USA’s greatest composers Terry Riley, British modernist master Nigel Osborne, Indian composer Shirish Korde and Simon Thacker, representing one of the most ambitious UK-based Indian/Western programmes of recent years. Svara-Kanti also features the beautiful voice of Japjit Kaur, internationally renowned tabla player Sarvar Sabri, who has a musical lineage stretching back ten generations to the Royal Court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, and Carnatic South Indian violinist Jyotsna Srikanth, who has recorded over 200 Bollywood soundtracks and is a London Trinity College of Music Fellow. Bringing together four leading performers in Hindustani, Carnatic, contemporary Asian and Western classical music, Svara-Kanti combines the world’s most diverse musical cultures, creating powerful and inspiring new music.

Generously supported by Creative Scotland.

 The Raghu Dixit Project with members of Bellowhead

With choreography by Gauri Sharma Tripathi

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wednesday 18, 8pm and Thursday 19, 7.30pm

£20 £15 £10

Following last year’s sell-out concert, Indian folk-rock star Raghu Dixit and band return to Alchemy for the next exciting stage of their new collaboration with members of Britain’s renowned folk big-band, Bellowhead and choreographer Gauri Sharma Tripathi. Based on the Hayavadana myth, this concert sees the Raghu Dixit Project and Andy Mellon (trumpet), Brendan Kelly (saxophone) and Pete Flood (drums) from Bellowhead joined by dancers as they recreate the story. A Southbank Centre and British Council Collaboration generously supported by Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Gauri Sharma Tripathi and members of Bellowhead are Southbank Centre Artists in Residence.

 Bahok

Thursday 19 April, Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.45pm

£10

Bahok features Anusheh Anadil, one of Bangladesh’s most popular singers and lead vocalist of Bangla. She is joined by musicians from around the world as they perform Anusheh’s own compositions, as well as baul songs by Lalon Shai and other mystic poets.

Supported by the British Council Bangladesh

Rosabella Gregory

Friday Lunch

Friday 20 April, Central Bar at Royal Festival Hall, 1pm

Free

British singer-songwriter and Royal Academy of Music graduate Rosabella Gregory is a music fiend. Her late grandfather liked to recall a simple statement she made when she was six: ‘I want to compose, create and perform music’. She did just that and in 2007 Rosabella won the International Prize in the New York Songwriter’s Circle Song Contest. For Alchemy she performs a lunchtime show with her quartet: Philipp Groyssboeck (drums), Oli Hayhurst (bass) and Alok Verma (percussion). They perform renditions of music from her new album, Dangerous Games.

 Arun Ghosh

Friday Tonic

Friday 20 April, The Front Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 5.30pm

Free

Iconoclastic clarinettist Arun Ghosh presents radical contemporary arrangements of selected Tagore material, and pays homage to the revolutionary spirit of Nazrul, with his unique interpretations of the Rebel Poet’s ‘mass music’. Plus hear Ghosh’s own inimitable Indo-Jazz works. He performs with the cream of musicians from both jazz and Bengali music traditions including special guest vocalist, Sohini Alam.

 Shankar Mahadevan & Purbayan Chatterjee

Saturday 21 April, Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm

£55 premium £45 £35 £25 £10

Singer Shankar Mahadevan earned his first National Film Award for his song in ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’, Collaborating with A.R. Rahman as a playback singer. When his debut album Breathless was released in 1998 he became a household name. Not to be limited to any style, category or genre, he has also worked with some of world’s most extraordinary artists. With an international career spanning 25 years, Purbayan Chatterjee is one of India’s best-loved sitar players and composers. Noted for fusing traditional Indian classical music with contemporary world music genres, he has performed across the globe.

In partnership with Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust. Generously supported by Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

 Charity Shop DJ

Across the site, 21^st & 22^nd April, 12noon – 5pm

Free

Historical and nostalgic music pioneers Charity Shop DJ invite you to come and play with them. They create a welcoming place where you can choose from original vintage Indian records, explore their memorabilia of Indian film posters and create your own party in the foyers. Please feel free to bring along your own vinyls and add to the collection.